Russia-Ukraine war: First half of 2026 sees sharp rise in civilian casualties

The United Nations said Tuesday that civilian casualties in the war raging between Russia and Ukraine rose 37 percent in the first half of this year.

"We documented 1,396 civilians killed (and) 7,978 injured ... that amounts to a 37 percent increase from the same period in the previous year," Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva.

Russia and Ukraine – which deny targeting civilians – have stepped up daily strikes on each other in recent months, as US-led talks on ending the nearly four-and-a-half year conflict remain stalled.

The UN rights office decried multiple attacks in recent days causing civilian casualties across Ukraine and in Russia.

"Civilians and civilian infrastructure are strictly protected under international humanitarian law, and any such deliberate attack is a war crime," spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters.

Russia has pounded Ukraine's capital with a series of deadly missile strikes this summer, with June seeing the most civilian casualties in Ukraine since 2022.

Ukraine has also stepped up its long-range strikes on Russian infrastructure in an attempt to undermine Moscow's war effort, including oil depots and refineries.

A Ukrainian drone attack on two key warehouses of Russia's biggest online retailer Wildberries killed eight night-shift workers Saturday. Kyiv accused the facilities of supplying the Russian military with Western-sanctioned drone components, which Moscow has denied.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)